Occupying popular culture

I first heard this song by Hawaiian folk singer Makana on the Argentine news report that I included in my last post. (Yes, there are some good things about globalization!) The song, "We Are The Many," is a tad on the corny side, but what the heck. I like it anyway. It captures the "democratic moment" of the Occupy movement. The historical photos are great, too. (Correct video now posted.)



I kind of like the little "postmodern" touch about "gaze."

What I didn't realize until I had listened to it several times was that he performed it at the recent APEC conference where President Obama and other senior political administrators of the 1% gathered to plan more free-trade agreements to impoverish the workers - and to have a good time and expensive food, of course! He talks about it here:




He says he played the song for 45 minutes, which makes you wonder: did it not occur to anyone there that he was trashing the audience? It certainly creates a wonderful image of cluelessness if that's the case. Did they just think it was too harmless to worry about? Did they worry about making him look like a martyr by dragging him off the stage? The one-percenters generally haven't been displaying that level of subtlety about such things lately, though. And what did they make of his "Occupy With Aloha" t-shirt?

My fantasy is that Rush Limbaugh will get wind of this and do a hate-spewing rant against Makana which would make him nationally famous. Then FOX News can accuse him of being a hypocrite because he's successful!

If the APEC types are that clueless about their musical entertainment, I would highly recommend they invite Nina Hagen to perform at their next meeting:



While we're on the topic of Occupy songs, here's a rap one from Pittsburg rapper Jasiri X:

Jasiri X Performs 'Occupy (We are the 99)' The Alyona Show YouTube date 11/15/2011:



Jasiri X attracted attention for one of his earlier topical songs, What if the Tea Party was Black? YouTube date 11/14/2010:



Tags: jasiri x, makana, nina hagen, occupy movement

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